[foundation-board] xero, setup and accountant/bookkeepers

Mon Aug 16 11:09:45 UTC 2010

Hi everyone,

Hope everyone had a good weekend.

I had a good meeting with Catherine Davis, the Managing Director of Urban Ledgers this morning:

<http://www.urbanledgers.co.uk/>

The main thing I picked her brain on was project expenses and forecasting/budgeting.

Project expenses - she said that there are a few ways to do this but that it can be done, such as by using project codes.

Forecasting/budgeting - she's putting in a call to Xero support about doing project-by-project forecasting/budgeting as it doesn't look like Xero currently supports this level of detail (though will handle budgeting generally).  She suggested that there may be a way to put in some of the invoices in advance as well.

She also suggested that we look quite closely at how we do the VAT stuff as this is an area that companies often have trouble with, especially when they use a PA instead of a professional bookkeeper to set these up and enter them in.

Their rate is £39/hour.

I suggest that we make use of their services to set up our accounts to make sure that everything is properly setup to save us some headaches in the future.

After discussing it with her, I think the next step is a half day session with her resident Xero expert either in London or Cambridge (suggest London) to review our setup so far and to map out how to implement our requirements from the system. This would be between Rufus and his PA, and perhaps Becky as interim treasurer (don't want to volunteer you, but...) and I'd be happy to attend if needed.

After last week, our main goals out of the system seem to be:

-- budgeting / forecasting, preferably on a project-by-project basis
-- clear, accurate, and up-to-date accounts
-- options around reporting, particularly easy reporting that we can post publicly at the end of each quarter

If the board approves, this would presumably be around 4-5 hours (depending on traveltime for the xero expert) at 39/hour plus travel costs (I assume). The goal I'd see out of this is to have a second opinion on our setup and a workplan for any additional tasks.

Sound good?  

Catherine Davis <catherine.davis at urbanledgers.co.uk>

Not sure if we need a formal board motion, but just in case:

I move to authorise contracting a bookkeeper to help with the xero setup.

Thanks!

~Jordan

____
Mr. Jordan S Hatcher, JD, LLM

More at: <http://www.jordanhatcher.com>
Co-founder:  <http://www.opendatacommons.org>
Open Knowledge: <http://www.okfn.org/>